Two EVSC Teacher Projects Funded Through Donor’s Choose and Horace Mann Insurance

 

The EVSC and Horace Mann Insurance Agent Nathan Hillyard, have partnered to help fund teacher projects via DonorsChoose.org, an online non-profit organization allowing individuals to donate directly to classroom projects.

The projects funded were both art related – one at Washington Middle School and one at the Academy for Innovative Studies-First Avenue.

Audrey Kavanaugh, art teacher at Washington Middle School, had a Pop Art project funded.  Kavanaugh wanted to introduce her students to Pop Art – and the likes of artists Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.  Kavanaugh requested funding for gel plates that could be re-used indefinitely with her students, to allow them the opportunity to try their hand at Pop Art styles. “These plates can be used over and over with many students for many projects. These printing plates will allow the students to have a hands-on experience actually creating multiple prints just as a real printmaker would.  This allows for more engagement in their learning because they are actually following the steps and completing the process not just reading about it in a book or me telling them about it from a presentation.”

Lisa Powers, art teacher at the Academy for Innovative Studies, had funding provided for materials to be able to mount projects for the city’s High School Art Show.  In order for the flat artwork – prints, paintings, etc. — to be accepted, it is required that they be mounted on mat board and covered in acetate, which was not available for the students.  Now, that her project has been funded, students are excited about the opportunity to showcase and submit their work for the show. “This will give them the valuable experience in submitting work when they enter higher education.  I am honored Horace Mann selected our project,” she said.

Hillyard and Horace Mann are pledging $500 a month for 2015. A local committee will select projects on DonorsChoose.org to fund with that money – but the more individuals who donate to DonorsChoose.org,  Hillyard said, the more projects that will be funded and the greater the benefit for students. Hillyard, who owns Itus and Abucus, LLC, the local Horace Mann company, said his desire, and that of his company and the EVSC is to increase educational opportunities for students.  He would like to see teacher awareness of the DonorsChoose.orgwebsite as a possibility for project funding; and he would like to increase public awareness of the site, so that more projects are funded.

DonorsChoose began in 2000, when a new social studies teacher in New York, talked with colleagues about materials and experiences they wanted their students to have, for which they had no funding support.  He created the online charity, as a way for individuals to donate directly to classrooms in need.  If a project is fully funded, DonorsChoose ships the materials directly to the school, and provides donors photos of the project taking place, and supply a cost report showing how every dollar was spent.